Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1887-12-23


ahradod hu, was almost pleased; now no
would crawl to the edge of the huge pit and
look dind,y down. He saw the spiral of the
descending roadway, the steep crngS, the
clinginS bushes, the pcppering of snow
wrcathS. and far down in the bottom, the
diminished crane. Here. no doubt, was n
way to end it. Bat it somehow did not take
his fancy
And suddenly he was aware that he was
hungry; ay, even through the tortures OF the
cold, even through the frosts of despair, a
gross. desperate longing after food, no mat
ter what no matter how, began to wake and |
spur him. Suppose he pawncd his watchF !
But no, on Christmas day-thiS was Christ |
mas day.-the pawn shop would be closed. |
Suppose he went to the public house close 10y |
ut Blackhall and offered the watch, which |
was worth so, in payment for a meal of !
bread and cheesei The mcongruity was too
remarkable; the good folks would either put
him to the door or only let him in to send Tor
the police. He turned his pockets out one
after another; some San Francisco tram car
checks, one cigar, no lights, the pass key to
his fathers house, o pocket handkerchief,
with just n touch of SCENT no money could
| be raised on none of these. There was moth
ing for it but to starve; and after all, what
| mattered it: That also was a door of exit.
! He crept close among the bushes, the wind
PLAYING round him like a lash; his clothes
seemed thin rs paper, his joints burned, his
| skin curdlcd on his bones. He had a vision
of a high living cattle drive in California,
| and the bed of a dried stream with one
muddy pool by which the vaqueros had en-
| camped: splendid sun over all, the big bon
| fire blazing the strips of COW browning ana
smoking on slewer of wood; how warm IL
was, how savory the steam OF screening
meat And then again he remembered his
manifold calamities and bulrowed and wal
lowed in the sense of his disgrace and shame
And next he was entering Franks restau-
rant in Montgomery street, San Francisco:
he had ordered a pan stew and vcnlson
chops, of which he was immoderately fond,
and as he sat waiting, Munroe, the good at
tendant, brought him n whisky punch; he
saw the strawberries float on the delcctable
| cup, he heard the ice chink about the straWS.
And then ne woke again to his detcsted fate.
and found himself sitting, bumped together,
in a windy colnbc of quarry refuse-dark-
ness thick about him, thin flakes of snow
hying here and there like rags of paper, and
the strong shuddering of his body clashlnG
his teeth like hiccough.
We have seen John in nothing but the
stormiest conditions; we have seen nm reck-
less, Desperate tried beyond his moderate
powers; of his daily self, cheerful, regular
not unthriftv, we have seen nothing; and 1t
may thus be a surprise to the reader, to learn
! that he was Studiously careful of his health
i-'' - y. ~ = ,,I 40 of cold tbere
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